They say prostitution is the world’s oldest trade, and I believe this to be true. I see prostitution as a form of sexual and economic freedom. When scraped of the modern stigma, the bare bones of prostitution are the same as any other profession. Willing, regulated, indoor prostitution has its hardships and its dependence on clientele just like any other service job. It is the stigma, the need for illegal prostitutes and the underground activity that makes the sex industry dangerous and unforgiving. For centuries, when women had control over nothing but their own bodies, they were able to turn to prostitution as a means of making a living. Even today, many women, who come from hard backgrounds and did not have the luxury of an education, could always go into the sex trade, were it legalized. I also think that the legalization would act to further the regulation of healthcare and safety for the men and women who perform. If it were legal, the workers would feel safer when going to the hospital or police for help. As it is now, prostitutes are unwelcome in asking for assistance when faced with infections or violence, because they too are on the wrong side of the law, they feel that going to the clinic as often as they would like, would raise a red flag that they were prostitutes, if they called the police during a time with a client, they would also be arrested.
Legalizing prostitution would lower the rates of infection and violent encounters between the women and their johns. I also think there are bigger problems that the law and government could be channeling their time, money, and effort into. I understand that sex trafficking and sexual slavery would pose a problem if the trade were legalized. But they also pose a problem now. And I think that if the shame were removed, and the sex trade were more open towards women who chose the profession, there would be less need to prostitute young women who did not wish to work in the industry. Many of the downsides of legalization we will cover shortly, are even greater threats as the law stands now.
Sex work has a long and prosperous history. Just after the Louisiana Purchase and the founding of the Bay Area as a mining town Mecca, women from Europe were shipped to America with the purpose of marrying the men who were already there and starting families. They had other plans in mind. Most of the women sent by their governments, namely the French, chose to become prostitutes instead. This gave them the income they had been lacking in their home countries. These women were well off by the standards of their day, they were making money on their own terms, not waiting at home for their husbands to return with a sprinkling of gold dust. According to Melissa Grant, and her article for Alternet, many madams had wealthy lovers and were respected members of society. This has been lost over time (Grant).
One of the biggest problems faced by prostitutes right now, is that they are all alone. They must defend themselves, against everything from disease, to violent clients, to overpowering and greedy pimps. They cannot freely go to hospitals or use medical insurance to pay for checkups, just as any other professional would get benefits to cover workplace hazards, and they definitely cannot go to law enforcement when they are in trouble. They work outside the law, in one of the most dangerous jobs, a job where they are some of the most easily victimized people, but if they had the support of law enforcement, they would not be in so much danger. In “7 Reasons Why America Should Legalize Prostitution,” Erin Fuchs touches on the points of lowered violence and increased access to healthcare if the sex trade were to be lawful. We can already see this within our own borders now. “Nevada only allows prostitution in licensed brothels that test workers routinely for sexually transmitted infections,” (7 Reasons). It should be noted that Nevada is at this very moment proving that legalizing prostitution is worth it, as mentioned by Fuchs, the University of Nevada interviewed the owners of legal brothels and concluded that "brothels offer the safest environment available for women to sell consensual sex acts for money,” and they “ensure this by making it policy to call the police at the slightest hint of trouble to send a message that they don’t tolerate bad behavior.” (Brents and Hausbeck 2005). This is exactly the type of prostitution that deserves to made lawful.
Many people don’t know that prostitution can be a legal and benign profession, or they just chose to ignore the evidence. Until the trade is legalized everywhere, and there are no protections against management (pimps) abusing their power, workplace hazards, and health-related issues, as there are with other jobs. Prostitution will continue to be a dangerous and gritty, underground occupation. If it were brought to light, and regulated like the Nevada brothels, most of the things that make it illegal now will go away. That is the main problem with the law- the reasons people feel it should be illegal will be eliminated if it were legalized. According to a study of San Francisco prostitutes, 82% of them had been assaulted (Fuchs 2013), this is because the people who do it know they are going to get away with it, they know that the women they assault are not going to seek intervention.
The theory that legal prostitutes would have access to healthcare and police intervention is also proven by New Zealand, where the sex trade is legalized. “In 2003, New Zealand was the first country to decriminalize sex work for the workers, their clients and third parties,” (Gonchar 2015). This New Zealand law has already begun to show promise. According to the article by Michael Gonchar, a prostitute went to court in 2014 to file a sexual harassment lawsuit against her brothel operator and was awarded $21,000, (Gonchar 2015). It is important to note, that the woman enjoyed the work and was a willing participant, but disagreed with her employer’s actions.
Also mentioned in the New York Times article, was the personal account of a former prostitute who does not think the trade should be legalized. Rachel Moran states that she entered the trade at age 15, because she was homeless after being placed in the foster care system. She was unwilling to begin selling her body but she was convinced there was no other choice. She says “I was doubly exploited — by those who pimped me and those who bought me,” (Gonchar 2015). This is true, she did not want to sell her body, and felt forced, or “exploited,” by those who bought it. But the point that I am trying to make, is that this is obviously a problem we face right now, she is living proof, so the fact that the trade is illegal does not prevent this kind of forced participation. If unwilling young women really were protected by the fact that prostitution is illegal, there would no stories like the one told by Moran. She also states that “implementing this policy will simply calcify into law men’s entitlement to buy sex,” (Gonchar 2015) but what about women’s entitlement to sell sex? In the end, the success of a law is greater testimony than a single personal account.
The legalization of prostitution would also benefit the government, and not just the people involved. If the sex trade were legitimized, the prostitutes would have to pay income taxes. As stated by Erin Fuchs, in her article for Business Insider, this would be huge revenue for a country. This new flow of money could be directed at infrastructure, schools, and other necessary things, while money would be saved if the police could stop spending so much time and so many resources hunting down prostitutes. Fuchs quotes MSNBC political analyst, Michael Smerconish, as he sums up the argument nicely. He wrote, "Let government share in the revenue, but otherwise stay out of the affairs of consenting adults," (Smerconish 2013). The operative works are “consenting adults.”
This leads me to my final point, in the end- the actions between two willing adults is nobody’s business. If they go about the act properly, ie out of the public eye, both agreeing to set terms, and aren’t violent, who should justifiably care? The main argument given by the general public is that they are offended, or that they don’t want their children being exposed to such things. I have one answer for them: don’t take your children to brothels. It’s simple.
While there are hypothetical problems foreseen in a future with legal prostitution, there are many, real problems we are facing today. Legalizing the sex trade would fix a huge bulk of what makes the sex trade so dangerous, such as the inability for workers to seek healthcare and police aid. It would also lead to greater revenue for our government.
Works Cited
Brents, Barbara G., and Kathryn Hausbeck. “Violence and Legalized Brothel Prostitution in Nevada.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence, vol. 20, no. 3, 2005, pp. 270–295., doi:10.1177/0886260504270333.
Fuchs, Erin. “7 Reasons Why America Should Legalize Prostitution.” Business Insider, 13 Nov. 2013.
Gonchar, Michael. “Should Prostitution Be Legal?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 Nov. 2015, learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/11/05/should-prostitution-be-legal/.
Melissa Gira Grant / AlterNet. “When Prostitution Wasn't a Crime: The Fascinating History of Sex Work in America.” Alternet, www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/when-prostitution- wasnt-crime-fascinating-history-sex-work-america.
Smerconish, Michael. “Why we should legalize prostitution.” MSNBC, NBCUniversal News Group, 12 Sept. 2013, www.msnbc.com/hardball/why-we-should-legalize-prostitution.